Problem Play

The Problem Play :

Ans : The development of the problem play towards the close of the Victorian age was closely related to the growth of the realistic movement in the field of English drama. “The problem play,” according to Albert Guerard, “is the presentation of a contemporary questions through realistic technique.”   The dramatists of the problem play were preoccupied with the vital problems of contemporary life and morality, and the drama which was directly inspired by the social ferment of the time, could be effective only if it adopted a realistic form or medium.  No serious analysis of the issues of problems facing society  could be possible, as long as the dramatists ignored the facts and conditions of life as they actually existed.  These new dramatists made a conscious effort to deal with the social problems of the time, howsoever, repellant they might be to the puritans.

The realistic movement was strengthened by the growth of the scientific spirit, which stimulated the desire for facts and fostered an attitude of dispassionate observation.  Moreover, the foreign influences on drama gave  an enormous impetus to the realist movement.  The works of Henrik Ibsen and Emile Zola encouraged the spirit of  naturalism in English drama.  Emile Zola aimed at giving a faithful and vivid  impression of the banality of everyday life, and was convinced that the naturalistic  movement would give life and vigour to the theatre and make it ‘modern and realistic’.  Similarly in Ghosts and other plays Ibsen aimed at giving an impression of reality.  He placed the themes and situations of real contemporary life on the stage, and made serious drama a mirror as well as a stern monitor of his age.  The inclusion of fact in fiction and drama became a serious issue during the eighties;  Zola and Ibsen were considered Vulgar and obscene and were greeted with derision and abuse.

The term ‘The problem Play’ was coined by Sydney Grundy who used it in a disparaging sense for the intellectual drama of the nineties, which he believed was marching to its doom in the hands of ‘ a coterie of enthusiastic eccentrics’.  The problem play has not been precisely defined, though it is supposed to deal with problems and Shaw defined it as “the presentation in parable of the conflict  between man’s will and his environment.”  This does not furnish a certain basis or  criterion because drama always presupposes the existence of a conflict in which human destinies are involved, and invariably presents the issue in the form of a concrete problem which calls for a solution.  Eric Bentley find the justification of the word ‘problem’ on the ground that the play ends  with a question mark.  He says that the dramatist’s business is to state his problem clearly and effectively, and not to present a readymade  solution or to suggest a specific remedy.

The problem play is supposed to have arisen out of the sentimental drama of the eighteenth century, and has been often identified with ‘drama’, a dramatic form distinctly serious but not tragic that aims at presenting life’s blend of smiles and tears.  It is believed that problem drama or the so-called ‘drama’ differs essentially from tragedy even though it deals with serious issues.  It normally exhibits ideas, situations and feelings that lack tragic dimensions.  It is distinguished from comedy, not only by the lack of episodes  designed simply to amuse, but on account of its serious temper and didactic aim.  Prof. W.W. Lawrence believes that it has no kinship even with the so called tragic-comedy which lacks the necessary seriousness and is on the whole not analytical but theatrical.”

The problem play remained a theatrical outcast during the nineties.  It was supposed to be dull and wearisome and was, therefore, unacceptable to the popular commercial theatre of London which aimed at providing cheap amusement and relaxation.  Many theatre managers believed that problem play could not be a sound business venture.

The problem play ventured to deal with themes that were not only painful to modesty but repugnant to good taste.  They dealt with painful subjects and therefore, suffered on account of the neo-Puritan attitude of the average play-goer and the British Censor. It was considered morally pernicious and unwholesome, and its performance in the public  theatre was often banned.

It is often argued that problem drama is rarely good art because when the propagandist or thinker gains the upper hand, the artist perishes.  The dramatist who has a message to convey or a case to prove is tempted to wrest facts from their true setting and distort situation and character.  He is inclined to shape the conflict and action arbitrarily to a set preconceived denouement at the expense of verisimilitude.

Dramatists of the Problem Play

T.W. Robertson, Henry Arthur Jones and Sir Arthur Wing Pinero did much to prepare the ground for the new drama of ideas and social purpose.

The appearance in 1865 of Society, a play by T.W. Robertson, was a portent.  Hisname is associated with the beginning of the modern revival of English drama.  He was one of the fore-runners of the realistic drama which became so popular in the nineties. After the staging of Society, Robertson wrote some other plays, namely Ours, Caste, Play, School, and M.P.  In all of them the stage was used for the presentation and discussion of some social problem; thus there came about the combination of the play of ideas with realistic production and a new attitude to the theatre.

Arthur Wing Pinero (1855-1934)

Arthur Wing Pinero and Henry Arthur Jones carried on to a further stage the work begun by Robertson.  Pinero’s  famous play The Second Mrs. Tanquerary (1893) poses the question of the social acceptance of the woman  with a “past”.  Pinero’s play comes to the sad conclusion that, as matters stand, such a woman cannot be admitted to polite society.  Realizing that no redemption is possible from her past sins, Paula Tanqueray kills herself.  This  play, when first produced at St. James’ Theatre, London, on May 27, 1893, was hailed as ‘epoch-making’ and pinero was recognized as ‘ a brilliant and daring pioneer’ of the new dramatic revival. 

Henry Arthur Jones (1851-1929)

Henry Arthur Jones believed that the drama should provide social criticism.  He began a light probing at Victorian convention as early as the eighties with Breaking a Butterfly (1885) based on Ibsen’s A Doll’s House (1879).  He further produced Saints and Sinners (1891), The Crusaders (1893), and The Case of Rebellious Susan (1894).  In The Case of Rebellious Susan the presents a respectable married lady rebels against her unfaithful  husband, and sails too close to the wind in an unfortunate flirtation.  The play is based on the general problem of matrimonial stability, and the mutual obligations of husbands and wives.  In spite of  its conservative approach to the problem of conjugal disharmony and crudities of technique, the play, to some extent, paved the way for the more artistic and outspoken works of Galsworthy, Granville-Barker and George Bernard Shaw.

George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950)

George Bernard Shaw had the Longest career in English dramatic history for his first play Widowers’ Houses was staged as early as 1892 and the most recent work Good King Charles’s Golden Days, appeared in 1939.  He was a moralist and propagandist.  He was one of the earliest to advocate the new social drama of Ibsen. A.C. Ward says, “ He was impressed by the ‘technical novelty’ of Ibsen’s plays : by his judgments upon ideals and idealists; and by his anti-romantic impatience of the womanly woman”.  In his several plays Shaw dealt with the various social problems.  Slum landlords, prostitution, marriage conventions, the medical profession, social prejudices, the romanticized soldier are some of the themes that passed through the microscope of his rationalism.

John Galswrothy (1867-1933)

 Galsworthy occupies a distinctive place in modern English drama.  His naturalism reminds us of Ibsen; in his moral  earnestness he is akin to Shaw; and in his preoccupation with the sores and disease of society he resembles Brieux.  He is a critic and interpreter of contemporary English life in his  dramas.  The tendency to probe the sores of society characterize serious modern drama in general, but Galsworthy’s diagnosis and his suggested treatment are his own.  Like Shaw he handles definite problems those of marriage, of sex relationship, of labour disputes, of the administration of law, of solitary confinement, of caste feeling or class prejudice- but for him the individual problem always leads to the fundamental problem of the general relation between individuals within the social organisms.  He does not seek to represent the universal human emotions – the problems of life, love, hate world – weariness, ambition, etc. – as Shakespeare did.  These great themes do not engage the mind of Galsworthy.  His vision is narrowed down to the social problems of his own country and age.

Harley Granville – Barker (1877-1946)

Harley Granville-Barker made a vital contribution to the problem play.  He dramatized the individual who cannot easily adjust his inner self to his outward life.  This individual encounters no barriers nor pitfalls worth conquering but on the other hand no encouraging opportunities for his better self; merely a spiritual void.  He themes include the marriage conventions.  The inheritance of tainted money, sex and the position of women.  His significant problem plays are The Voysey Inheritance (1905), Waste (1907), and The Madras House (1909).  The problem drama  of England was unquestionably the fruit of a strong dissatisfaction with the existing conditions of life.  It directed attention to the  facts and problems of social life, and depicted the misery and suffering wrought by the cruel forces and conventions of society.  The problem playwright censured the existing social system, its rigid laws and straight laced codes of conduct and belief.  Some of the problem plays proved so effective that they imbued men’s with a passionate resentment against  social injustice, Justice mobilized public opinion in favour of prison reform and hastened legislative action.  Similarly Clemence Dane’s A Bill of Divorcement led to the recognition of persistent certified lunacy as one of the grounds for divorce.  No doubt, the problem plays were produced in large number, but since 1920, its supremacy came to be challenged by the revival of the historical and imaginative drama, and, above all, the poetical drama and the experimental play.